Volkswagen to take full control of Scania

14 May 2014

Volkswagen announced that it has attracted enough Scania shareholders to sell their stock to enable it to take full control of the Swedish truck manufacturer. Scania shareholders agreed to sell enough stock to give Volkswagen control of 90.47% of Scania’s capital and 96.26% of the voting rights.

Volkswagen has been an investor in Scania since 2000 and controlled 89.2% of the voting rights before the takeover bid.

In February, Volkswagen offered to buy the shares of Scania that it did not already own for €6.7 billion (US$9.2 billion) in an all-cash deal. After it failed to ensure the 90% ownership, the deal was extended earlier this month. Under the Swedish law, the owner of 90% of a company shares is in a position to force the remaining shareholders to sell their shares.

The remaining Scania shareholders have until May 16th to accept the bid. Once the deadline is passed, Volkswagen intends to initiate compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares in Scania as well as promote a delisting of Scania’s shares from the Stockholm stock exchange.

The acquisition is a key development for the Volkswagen heavy-duty truck business, allowing the company to better compete against Daimler and Volvo. “This is good news for the Volkswagen Group as a whole, as we can now take the next logical and consistent step in our strategy to strengthen the operational integration between Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles to create a leading commercial vehicles group,” said Volkswagen’s chairman Martin Winterkorn.

Volkswagen gained full control of the German engine and truck maker MAN last year, after taking a majority stake in 2011.